Colts - Hillsboro game

For those of you not at the Thurston quarterfinal game, you missed a great game. The game was much closer than the three possession final score indicated.

In an early first quarter series, Hillsboro opened a drive going 0-3 passing and quickly turned the ball over to the Colts with 7:57 left in the first. After a Chance Hendrickson run and a completed pass to Jordan Loos for a first down, it looked like Thurston had found their rhythm. Sure enough, another completion to Loos and a run by Kyle Wright gave the Colts another first down. At this juncture, I'm thinking that Thurston will score a lot of points.

Then one of several Colt costly miscues occurred. A pass bounced off of a Colt receiver and to a waiting Spartan, who returned it to the Thurston 40. A few plays later in a drive that included a 4th and 5 conversion, Hillsboro's junior Colt Lyerla fumbled the ball into the end zone and a receiver fell on it for a TD and a 7-0 Spartan lead with 2:46 left in the first quarter. The Hillsboro TD was a little fluky, given that the INT bounced off a Colt receiver and the Spartan TD was off an offensive fumble. Now I'm thinking that the bad fortune can't continue the entire game, that the Colt D that shut down Hillsboro earlier will be fine with normal field position, and the O will stay in gear because there won't be anymore fluky turnovers. But little did anyone know, this type of sequence would be a recurring pattern of the game.

The Colts responded by going from their own 20 after the kickoff to the Spartan 20. The Colts got on the board with a 31 yard field goal from Gustavo Machucha with 10:40 left in the second quarter. 7-3 Hillsboro. The Colts got the ball back in less than two minutes at their own 23 as Thurston's D stayed strong. Coach Starck's O exploded with two runs, a 41 yarder by Michael Livingston, followed immediately by a 36 yard TD run by Tyler Johnson. 10-7 Colts with 8:15 left in the second Q.

The Colt D stopped the Spartans once again and got the ball back with 5:08 left in the half. Now I'm thinking that the Colts have stopped the Spartans consistently expect for the short field touchdown, and the Colts have scored twice in a row and are playing up tempo, so the Colts are going to roll. And they do. 20 yards to Andrew Woody. Another 11 to Woody. Then an 18 yard run by TJ. The Colt drive stalls but Machuca comes out to kick another FG from 38 yards out with under 2 minutes left on the clock. Worst case is a missed field goal and Thurston goes into the locker room with a lead after stopping Hillsboro, who would have poor field position. But the kick is blocked and returned to the Hillsboro 46.

The Colts looked like they were going to hold and go into the locker room with a 10-7 lead, but Spartan QB Dominique Mims threw a long dart to Lyerla, threading the needle between two Colt DB's. Lyerla made it to the seven, whereupon the Spartans ran it in for a 14-10 halftime lead.

Second Half

Down by just 4 the Colts stopped Hillsboro, then both teams traded three and outs, with Thurston getting the ball on their own 38 with 7 minutes left in the third. A first down run by TJ puts the Colts on Hillsboro's side of the field. The Colts still move forward, but the fans are getting restless. One adult says "Why don't you go with what got us here? Run Livingston and TJ." Another adult says, "Why don't you pass to Loos and Woody". I'm thinking, I've seen the Colts five times this year and Starck is setting up the bomb - don't worry. Sure enough a Colt receiver is heading towards the goal posts with a Spartan a stride behind. The throw is just a little long, but the play is there for the rest of the game. The Colts stall and Machuca comes on the field for another FG attempt to hopefully pull the Colts within 1. But the play actually turned into another blocked FG attempt. Once again, the Spartans capitalized with a couple of beautiful passes and went up 20-10 with 2:09 left in the third. There was still plenty of time for a Colt comeback.

Hillsboro gave Thurston hope as the final quarter opened by fumbling near the 50 yard line. Thurston got to Hillsboro's 17 with 9 minutes to play, but the Colts couldn't convert on a fourth and five and the odds started shifted rapidly towards Hillsboro. Hillsboro managed a final late TD to make it 27-10.

Great Game

I didn't know much about Hillsboro before the game. Mostly I had heard about the running game, with junior 6' 5", 220 pound D-1 prospect Colt Lyerla and Mikkel Smythe. With the big guy, I had imagined a precise, smash mouth oriented running game, with the QB taking advantage of the DB's and LB's overplaying the run. Instead, the Hillsboro O wasn't too different than the Colts, with their QB going 15-23 for 211 yards and Lyerla and Smythe making key runs when needed.

What impressed me was Hillsboro's defense. The Spartans held the Colts to zero passing TDs, the only team to do so this year. While I don't recall Hendrickson getting sacked, the Spartans were always pressing him. He just couldn't leisurely stand back and throw to wide open receivers. More impressive was the Hillsboro LB's and secondary. Even when the DB's were beat deep, they were just a step behind, which required a throw right on the money. And the side to side speed of the LB's kept the short passes short and Livingston's and TJ's runs short for the most part. Take out the two longs runs on the Colt TD drive and Livingston and TJ were held to 3 yards per carry.

It was a great year for Thurston. I was fortunate to see the Colts against Willamette, Churchill, Marshfield and the playoff games. It was fun to watch Chance Hendrickson develop into a 64% passer, throwing for 235 yards per game. I wish he could have had a 'redshirt' year. It's always fun to watch Thurston's receiving corp - Loos, Woody, Demoss and Wright being this years stable. And TJ's development at RB - 7.4 YPCarry, helped take pressure off of Livingston - 6.8 YPC - to give the Colts a hard to believe balance. Livingston will have to bestow his receiving skills on Johnson for next year. Livingston hauled in 23 passes at 13 yards per catch.

And then there was the Colt D. League co-MVP's Wright and Kyle Akins were fantastic. Akins has the opportunity to officially become a 'Beast" next year. I haven't seen many linemen officially become 'Beasts'. I can think of Tim Brown from Sheldon and Bill Swancutt of Sprague. They were built like bulls and could take bigger guys and extend one forearm and knock them on their tush. I think Akins has that potential.

Final thoughts

Did the announcer really say Anthony 'Peanut' Havens? I don't recall the 'Peanut' part from last year's baseball.

Thurston will be playing with the big 6A boys next year. I'll be going out of my way to see them take on Sheldon or one of the other 6A schools from the old SOC.

If you have a son who is going to be playing varsity football during the next few years, get out and see some playoff games with your son. Starting with last week's quarterfinals, the teams that were left were all fit, strong and quick. That's off season work. Before the game get down as close to you can to the field. You'll notice the consistency of players who are 'cut'. I really noticed the difference when Thurston hosted The Dalles-Wahtonka. The Eagles had some huge players, but Thurston was in far superior shape. Final Score: Fit, strong, quick team 49. Big team 7.

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